Ejected through sunroof, one killed, one injured

A Savannah man “was able to walk away” from a single-vehicle crash Sunday, but his teenage passenger died at the scene, according to the Arkansas State Police.

Reported killed in the crash which occurred shortly before 6 a.m. near Colt, Arkansas was Steven Kendrick, 19, of Atoka, Tennessee. The driver, Savannah resident Nicholson Jeffery Sparks, 18, was transported to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis by helicopter for treatment of “suspected minor injury.”

Both men were ejected through the sunroof of the four-wheel-drive Ford F-150 operated by Sparks. The vehicle had been traveling north on State Highway 1 in a 60 mph zone when it “failed to properly negotiate straight ahead” on a straight section of four-lane roadway and went into a ditch on the right side.

The crash report says the pickup truck traveled over four driveway embankments and left impact marks in three of the embankments. The vehicle came to rest upside down. Weather conditions were noted as clear and dry.

Sparks submitted to a blood test and results for alcohol and drugs are pending, the report shows.